Susan Detrie
As a UW-Madison alumnus from the late 1970s, I guess it might not be all that surprising that my life trajectory was unconventional. After earning my first bachelor’s degree in philosophy at Madison, I moved to New York City to work in lighting design after spending the first season of American Players Theater in Spring Green, Wisconsin as the theater’s electrician. In New York, I programmed many of the original digital lighting systems in the city and served as assistant to the lighting designer at Radio City Music Hall and New York City Opera. Following a passion for visual technology and digital media, I transitioned into special effects, effects direction, and motion graphics as the field of digital technology grew, working on projects for television, film, advertising, and museums for several decades. As years passed, I went back to school to learn the skills needed to apply my background to education.
During my digital media career, I created effects for Coca-Cola and Nintendo commercials, motion graphics for Cartoon Network and Live from the Red Carpet shows, website design for ABC Daytime and TV Guide, and I developed title sequences for The Gilmore Girls, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and The Master of Disguise. I worked on projects for clients including CBS, ABC, Showtime, Cartoon Network, Discovery, Oracle, IBM, CNN, HGTV, E! Networks, Harpo Films, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where I designed motion graphics for a major exhibition. I have a Lone Star Emmy Award for Graphic Design, and my work is in several textbooks, including Motion Graphic Design and Fine Art Animation. In my latest chapter in digital media, my focus on educational technology brought me to the University of Colorado and then to Emory University, where I develop courses and multimedia for graduate public health curriculum, educational conferences, and inter-professional learning events.
Influenced by a career that required lifelong learning, I returned to school and earned a master’s degree (M.A. ’13) in educational technology from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an Educational Specialist degree (Ed.S. ’16) in educational technology from the University of Missouri. I recently earned a second bachelor’s degree in information technology from the University of Massachusetts (’25).
I currently reside in Atlanta.